Sunday, February 16, 2014

The search for substances able to inhibit and/or diminish
the effects of genotoxic and mutagenic substances has been the target of
several investigations performed in recent times. Hymenoptera venoms constitute
a considerable source of substances with pharmacological potential. The present
study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic, genotoxic and anti-genotoxic, mutagenic
and anti-mutagenic potentials of Apis mellifera venom in HepG2 cells. In this
evaluation, the MTT test was applied to determine the most appropriate
concentrations for the genotoxicity and mutagenicity tests.

It was verified
that the concentrations of 0.1, 0.05 and 0.01μg/mL were not cytotoxic, hence
these concentrations were used in the experiments. For the evaluation of the
genotoxic and mutagenic potential of the bee venom the comet assay and the
micronucleus test were applied, respectively. The concentrations mentioned
above presented both genotoxic and mutagenic potential for HepG2 cells and it
was necessary to test lower concentrations of the venom (10pg/mL, 1pg/mL and
0.1pg/mL) for the anti-genotoxicity and anti-mutagenicity tests, which were
performed subjecting the cells to the action of MMS (methyl methanesulfonate)
in order to verify the ability of the venom to inhibit or diminish the action
of this compound, which has a recognized action on the genetic material. Pre-,
post-treatment and simultaneous treatment with and without incubation with the
venom were performed.

It was observed that the lowest three concentrations
tested did not present any anti-genotoxic and anti-mutagenic activity on the
cells. The use of bee venom for pharmacological purposes in treatments such as
cancer must be done with extreme caution, since it was observed that even at
very low concentrations the venom can induce genotoxicity and mutagenicity in
human cells, as was verified for the HepG2 cells.